SINGAPORE: Right before her eyes, Julie Chiang watched the computer screen as someone used her Facebook account – pretending to be her, asking her friend for money and claiming she had been mugged in London.
"It was surreal to watch the conversation happen right in front
of me," said Ms Chiang, who had been woken up in Singapore by her
friend's phone call on Friday morning.
"He told me he was on Facebook now, talking to 'me', and I was saying I needed money to go home."
The hacker even used Ms Chiang's husband's name, which could be found on her Facebook profile, in the conversation.
Even as the unfolding scam began to dawn on her, a second friend
living in New Zealand messaged her to say she was having the same
conversation.
Reports of such incidents – known as a 419 scam – though few, are on the rise among Facebook users.
Fraudulent individuals collect log-in information through phishing
sites and access Facebook accounts to send inbox or chat messages or to
update the person's profile. And they claim to be stranded in a foreign
country and ask friends to send money, usually through a money transfer
service.
"While the total number of people who have been impacted is small,
we take any threat to security seriously and are redoubling our efforts
to combat the scam," said Facebook in a blog post in September.
The scam had previously been perpetrated through emails.
But more cyber criminals are leveraging on social engineering as a
means of deceiving users, said systems engineering manager Ronnie Ng
from Symantec Singapore.
"Social engineering takes advantage of our natural tendency to
trust one another, rather than relying solely on technological means to
steal information," he said.
Indeed, Ms Leong Su-Lin, who was chatting with "Julie" yesterday
morning, said the scam seemed believable because it was a "live"
conversation.
"Someone was actually responding to the questions I was asking; it
wasn't an automated thing, which is why I went along with it," Ms
Leong, 32, told MediaCorp from New Zealand.
"They were also hitting on a 'soft spot' by saying she was hurt. I
was very concerned, so although she sounded a bit strange, I thought
maybe it's because she was still traumatised."
But something felt amiss. "I thought it was strange she was on
Facebook and not at the police station or at an embassy," she said.
Mr Ng said people need to be more aware of where they post personal
information and who they allow on their social networks. In addition,
online users should be careful of clicking on links from unknown
senders and use up-to-date security software, he advised.
"They should also be on their guard if they receive suspicious
messages from friends, such as requests for money," he said. "Users
should always double-check with their friend. When in doubt, do a
search on the Internet to see if it's a known scam."
Thankfully for Ms Chiang's friends, they did just that, and she has
since reported the incident to Facebook. "I've not heard of this
happening, so it'll be good for more people to know about it," she
said.
The online conversation
(5:17:46 PM) Julie Chiang: Terence and I are stuck in London at the moment
(5:17:55 PM) Derrick Lim: are u there for a holiday?
(5:18:16 PM) Julie Chiang: Vacation
(5:18:27 PM) Julie Chiang: Got mugged at gun point last night ...
(5:19:00 PM) Julie Chiang: All cash,credit card and cell were stolen off me
(5:19:11 PM) Julie Chiang: I also got injured
(5:19:19 PM) Derrick Lim: oh no ....
(5:19:45 PM) Derrick Lim: what injury?
(5:20:01 PM) Julie Chiang: Little bruises all over my neck
(5:21:45 PM) Julie Chiang: I need your help to get back home?
(5:21:57 PM) Derrick Lim: my help? ....
(5:22:38 PM) Julie Chiang: Our flight leaves in less than 3hrs from now and we're having problem settling hotel bills
(5:23:02 PM) Julie Chiang: I need you to loan me few bucks to settle the bills and get a cab to he Airport
(5:23:59 PM) Derrick Lim: ok
(5:24:42 PM) Julie Chiang: You can have it wired to my name and Location through western union ....
(5:27:27 PM) Derrick Lim: can u email me the details?
(5:27:45 PM) Julie Chiang: sure
(5:27:52 PM) Julie Chiang: Name Julie Chiang
(5:28:19 PM) Julie Chiang: Location - London, United Kingdom
(5:28:28 PM) Julie Chiang: You can try it online right now
(5:30:18 PM) Julie Chiang: Visit www.westernunion.com
(5:30:58 PM) Derrick Lim: ok
(5:31:18 PM) Julie Chiang: You will have to do it with your credit card
(5:31:22 PM) Derrick Lim: yes
- TODAY/so
I hope this doesn't happen to me! It's so creepy. How do they manage to even hack FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS?! Oh yeah. They are called HACKERS anyway.
with 99% certainty, it has to be phishing.
FB definitely has a strong security. Only ways to access another's account are either by phishing or social engineering.
simple spoof of email sender, and the phishing link. And they'd hope that the victim would be foolish enough to fall into their trap.
im one of those that experience this before. sad, but luckily nth bad happens
thats how scary the virtual world can be...